In case you’ve been under a rock, and somehow haven’t noticed yet, Tim Prebble’s Hiss and a Roar sound effects label is having a birthday sale…and it’s BIG ONE! Through August 31st, you can get 50% off by using the discount code BOING at checkout. He’s also got a new library out too, SD020 Wind Instruments.

Sonic Salute – Rock & Roll

First up this month we come bearing gifts – an exclusive 20% off coupon for the latest Sonic Salute library pack.

ROCK & ROLL: Rock/Concrete/Metal Impacts and Dirt Debris contains over 300 LCR recordings of rolling rocks, rock and concrete impacts, dirt, debris, you name it. Basically, all the rock, with a lot of extra roll. All files are 24-bit / 192KHz and the product page has some cool info and video footage of the backstory of this collection.

Designing Sound have teamed up with Sonic Salute to give our readers 20% of this collection. Using the coupon code: ROCKTOTHEROLL20 on checkout will give you 20% off the usual $45.00 price, valid for 48 hours from the publication of this here post.

It’s been a little while since the last SFX Independence. This month’s round-up runs the gamut of sounds, from guns and rockets, to birds and screams. Plus, there are some get-them-while-you-can offers still on. First up…

Boom Library – Birds of Prey

With their latest release Boom Library continue their tradition of giving early-bird discounts (definitely no pun intended). They are offering a 20% discount on Birds of Prey up until May 10th of €119.20.

HISSandaROAR – Contact Mic Two

HISSandaROAR released a new library this past week. Contact Mic Two is a whopping 12.5 GB of dual mono/stereo contact mic recordings, all recorded at 24-bit / 192KHz.

You can purchase either Contact Mic One or Contact Mic Two for a discount; $129 down from $198 for One, and $74 down from $99 for Two. This special offer ends midnight Friday 9 May though, so you’ve got to be quick.

Diego Stocco – FFS // Rhythmic Convolutions

Diego Stocco’sFeedforward Sound series has been a hit among professional and hobbyist sound design enthusiasts alike. The first tutorial, Rhythmic Processing, looked at generating rich rhythmic textures from one source recording with percussive transients. The second, Convolution Processing, shifted focus slightly toward creating and processing transients and accents that are musically in sync with a main rhythm track.

His latest offering is not a tutorial, but a collection of creatively recorded spaces. Rhythmic Convolutions takes impulse responses to another level, with a set of over 200 responses aimed designed for processing highly percussive sound elements.

At $29.99, this pack comes in a little pricier than the previous two, which is explained by the fact that these are impulse responses that once purchased can be integrated into any sound design workflow.

Audio files are 24-bit/48KHz.

EDIT: The standard price of $29.99 is specifically for the purchase of a music license single user. If your usage falls under any other category (or you’re not sure), you’re advised to check the product website and/or email ffs@diegostocco.com.

Rabbit Ears Audio – Rockets 2

Rockets 2 – Static Burns is the brand new library from Rabbit Ears Audio. Following on from Rockets 1, which pulled together a various rocket ignitions, launches and misfires, their new collection goes one step further.

Featuring an assortment of large-scale rocket motors, both dry propellant and commercially available, each motor was recorded from up to 8 perspectives at 24-bit / 192KHz.

Rockets 2 is currently priced at $79.00 (usual price $99.00) and, for a limited time, customers can pick up Rockets 1 and 2 for discounted price of $135.00 (usual price $169.00).

Rabbit Ears Audio – Typewriters

Another recent addition to the Rabbit Ears Audio library is Typewriters. Also priced at $70.00, this collection features seven different typewriters all recorded from 4 mono perspectives; close; distant; under keyboard (close) and; under type bars (close).

All files are recorded at 24-bit / 192KHz and are availble to purchase now via this link.

Watson Wu – FullAuto

FullAuto is a collection of two sound libraries (Part 1 and Part 2) from sound designer Watson Wu, featuring various recordings from full automatic rifles of different calibers. Recorded from a number of different perspectives, FullAuto also offers a range of shooting modes such as Singles, Bursts, Mag Dumps as well as gun foley sounds.

In the last year, we’ve all been happy to see the slow emergence of software tools designed explicitly for sound design. The fine folks over at Tonsturm are the latest to release one such tool under the moniker Melted Sounds. Whoosh is a Reaktor based plug-in for designing, as implied by its name, complex and varied motion elements and pass-bys. The basic idea behind the tool is similar to a post here on Designing Sound by Charles Deenen, which was later built into a Kyma patch by Jean-Edouard Miclot. Whoosh simplifies the process of setting up this kind of processing chain yourself. If you’ve got Reaktor, you simply load the ensemble. The source material included with tool comes from some of the best independent sound effects libraries out there. Seriously, the list is hard to ignore. Sounds have been licensed from: Chuck Russom, Colin Hart, Tim Prebble, Jean-Edouard Miclot, Michael Raphael, Mikkel Nielsen, and Frank Bry…not to mention sounds from Tonsturm itself. It’s safe to assume that it sounds good…even if I weren’t about to tell you exactly that. Ultimately, deciding if it is a worthy addition to your toolbox is something we each have to decide individually. There are a lot of tools out there, and we all have our priorities. So, a review should be about its potential impact on workflow. Does it allow you a depth of control similar to Charles’ process at a comparable (or improved) speed?

The year is still fresh, but 2014′s already brought us a number of great new SFX libraries. Go back to analog times and the earliest days of digital with new collections from New Sound Labs and Dynamic Interference. Monkey around with HISS and a ROAR’s latest offering. Or just blow the whole thing up with help from Blastwave FX.